TheBrownBottle

A ‘luxury tax’ is neither use nor ornament if UEFA don’t accept it. They can place transfer embargoes and European bans on us.

Is there a link for it? Not sure how to find it

Less as a percentage than extending the Gallowgate would achieve relative to increased income

Agreed, though I’m not at all confident that meaningful FFP reform is on the way. There’s no indication that UEFA are about to change.

I still think it would be more, but £50m per season isn’t buttons

Yeah, I’m pretty confident on this one. The ground isn’t built to maximise corporate revenues in line with other modern stadiums. The Gallowgate extension would only bring in a few more million per season, and drinks and pies are only a thin strand of commercials

Honestly, I don’t know what you mean by peanuts. We might be talking close to a nine figure sum in additional potential revenue. I can understand you’re attached to SJP, but to me the income differences are so vast that they cannot be made up by staying.

In part - but also from other commercial uses of the stadium. Events, club shops, restaurants, corporate etc

Having half the match day revenue of the nearest ‘big six club’ isn’t peanuts, and again - a significant portion of ‘commercial revenue’ comes from the stadium, not kit sponsorship etc. That’s how Spurs’ commercial revenue dwarfs Arsenal and Chelsea - it’s their stadium doing that. You don’t think Spurs get more sponsorship money than two more successful London clubs?

Controversial with who, though? Who really gives a shite?

It isn’t peanuts, though. Much of the commercial revenue comes via the stadium, and our current match day revenues are below West Ham.

Honestly, the lad needs help. Doesn’t he have family or friends? Take the fucking camera off him and get him the support he needs. And the club needs to stop fucking enabling this stuff, too.

Safe standing wouldn’t add additional capacity unfortunately

Yeah, that was ‘sliding doors’ I don’t think we’d have beaten Rafa’s La Liga-winning Valencia team in the final, mind

100%. The manager is a decision-maker, but he’s not a medical professional. I still find it incredible the performances and fitness levels he’s got out of some of this squad. Most of us would’ve sacked off pretty much the entirety of Bruce’s squad. We went from the least fittest to the fittest team in the PL under Howe. The summer window is going to be really interesting - whether or not Howe doubles-down or attempts to move to a slightly different style. Who we sign will tell us I reckon.

I’m not willing to put everything down to bad luck, and I’m also not willing to pin everything on Howe’s methods. I don’t like it all being pinned on ‘bad luck’, because that’s unlikely to fix owt. I do think the truth will be somewhere between the two - Howe’s version of gegenpressing must require unbelievable fitness levels and have high demands of the body even of professional athletes. But some of the injuries we’ve had have also just been rotten luck.

I was there that day! Rob Lee howitzer with a couple of mins left, too edit: what should have been an enjoyably mad game was ruined by a lot of racist chanting from the Newcastle end. ‘Town full of p***s’. Fucking abysmal

I'm going to add a happy one - Steve Walsh's bizarre tackle / backpass OG, Leicester away final day of the 91/92 season. It sent me and my cousins crackers in my granddad's kitchen - he jumped and smashed the radio by knocking it off the table (or he broke the wireless in the scullery, as he would have said). Had to scramble into the living room to check on Grandstand that the game had ended. I know we didn't need a winner it turned out, but we didn't know that then ...

For context, we took 12 points from our last eight games (three wins, three draws) - and I'd say that the next eight are roughly equivalent. It is probably the teams coming up behind us that we need to be more worried about than WHU, in all honesty, and we don't actually know how many points are needed for 7th yet. I still think we might just do it - though not if the injuries continue ...

Nowt worse than megaphones and trumpets

Honestly, I think Schar has been under par for a couple of months. All just opinions, of course.

Sorry, when did this happen?

Local lads always get the most grief - always have done. Schar has been pants for some time, but you’ll not see much on him. Willock has been well below par since his return, but it’s pretty quiet on that front. Longstaff is a bang-average PL midfielder. Our squad is light already, and he’s a HG which is a big necessity for Europe. Unless we’re offered daft money, I don’t see why we’d sell at this point.

Fucking love the ice man, me. He needs wrapping in cotton wool and given any new deal he wants tbh. I still think the Bruno is the more likely ‘big name’ sale in the summer (if there is one). Obviously, would rather that there aren’t any of our better players going.

Ashley continues to fuck us, frankly. The contracts offered seemed crackers even at the time.